“Honestly, that was pure coincidence,” Cameron said, “but every time we watch it, it’s like, ‘Oh, those are the Golden Arches‘ — especially at dawn. You could have sturmbeest burgers, you could have a hammerhead Big Mac, Quarter Pounder. It’d be like to be a quarter-ton, though — hammerhead, that’s a pretty big animal.”

“That’s why we like the Big Mac,” Landau said. “Everything’s big on Pandora.”

Diners at earthly McDonald’s will be getting a supersize helping of Avatar, which opens Dec. 18, thanks to high-tech commercial tie-ins with the movie. It’s all part of the global marketing blitz for one of the most expensive films ever made. (The New York Times said the Avatar price tag approached $500 million, although 20th Century Fox called that “a ridiculous number.”)

In the United States, Big Macs will come with an Avatar Thrill Card that gives them access to interactive online experiences known as Pandora Quest and an augmented-reality game called McDVision. Completing Pandora Quest, in which players search for hidden objects within Pandora’s alien landscape, will give Avatar fans a chance to drive a virtual Pandora ROVR, a rugged off-road vehicle that lets them explore Cameron’s vivid sci-fi world online.

In Latin America, Avatar photo backdrops and augmented reality table stations bring the movie into McDonald’s dining rooms. In Australia, hidden codes on cups and trays give McDonald’s customers a shot at $80,000 in prizes. And in Singapore, Avatar commercials introduced a premium chicken sandwich. (OK, so that’s not so cutting-edge.)

“In the movie, we want to transport people to this world, and we want them to leave wanting to return to it,” Landau told Wired.com in an exclusive video interview (embedded above). “So through McDonald’s, you know, they have the opportunity to do exactly that through their various digital online experiences.”

Avatar‘s gorgeous 3-D world brims with never-before-seen beasts and vegetation. But Cameron’s elaborate vision for the alien world — complete with a built-from-scratch language and other innovations — goes well beyond what’s seen onscreen.

Marketing efforts like the McDonald’s partnership are “all about expanding that world,” Landau said, “and utilizing technology to bring to the consumer different types of experiences, but all of one world.”

So, why the Big Mac and not some strange new sandwich? “It’s about thrilling your senses,” said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s USA. “There’s so much going on with a Big Mac — the special sauce and the two all-beef patties. We think it’s a perfect match to tie that product in with a movie like Avatar, which is clearly about thrilling one’s senses.”

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